Try something new.

So, as much as AI is a disruptor, it is also an enabler. I embarked on publishing my first children's book, and the only reason I considered it was due to now having the ability to create and manage my own illustrations. I am going to take you through the process for those who may be interested.

First, I had to write a story. This was the human touch, since it was a personal account of a phrase that we used to calm down rowdy children during the day: "Don't wake the moon". So, I built a story around a little girl who had to keep the moon asleep during the day so that the moon could shine beautiful and bright at night.

Once I formulated the story, I had to put together illustrations. This is where both the fun and challenge started. I used MidJourney, which is an AI prompt image generator. Now, before you think that this is an easy process, let me tell you that I still had to invest around 100 hours to get the illustrations consistent. There was still a vast amount of design work required in Photoshop, and the reason for this is simple: AI is not there yet to create consistent characters in a vast array of poses and expressions that are required to stitch together a storybook. It is possible, but not easy. I had to learn a few tricks along the way in my prompts to get the most out of the same characters that are generated. The reason for this is, since it is AI, the chances of getting a like-for-like character even with the same prompts is zero to none. So, once you get a character you like, you need to work on that specific generation to keep consistency. I then had to create backdrops and create additional characters to make the story diverse and interesting.

Make no mistake, you need some good experience in Photoshop or Illustrator to close the gaps and make your characters believable. It is also beneficial to add additional imagery to make the pictures more interesting. You can also simplify your layouts to minimize the amount of character poses and expressions required. For instance, for story picture books, create a spread that goes over two pages rather than a separate image for each page.

That brings me to another interesting learning curve. If you're looking to perhaps publish your book on Amazon and use the "print on demand" service, you need to understand page formats, layouts, bleeds, etc. to make sure that your book(s) print correctly. Do some research on this one once you have an idea of the page sizes you wish to use. You then need to use a few tools to ensure that your books are presented in the way that you want. Another useful tip if you want to create a storybook: don't use the "Kindle Kids Book Creator" application. It causes issues when trying to rotate from portrait to landscape. Use "Kindle Create" as it is more recent and provides better functionality.

All in all, this project was more about the experience and to share a bedtime story with a book that I could call my own, rather than raking in the cash. After doing the math, unless you have a network of thousands of supporters, making money through Amazon is very slim. An example: my softcover book price is around $8. After Amazon takes away the printing costs and their share of the pie, I get around $1 royalty per book. You will make a bit more profit from your eBooks than you will from your physical books. You will need to make your own call on whether self-publishing is worth the effort and whether it is more feasible to get your own ISBN and print your own books.

The main point of this post is to emphasize that disruptors can be both beautiful and ugly. They can enable or hinder. Look for the opportunities while they can still be found.